Driving-wise, today was the hardest of the trip. I did not sleep well last night and had to drive the most difficult piece of I-70, across the Rockies in Colorado. And the drive was made even more challenging by the snow storm that blew through town yesterday (Sunday). I actually drove through it Sunday as I crossed into Colorado.
Today, I had to deal with the ice and sand still on the roads, sand that got blown onto my windshield when fast-moving trucks without mud-flaps passed me as my wiper fluid froze up.
It was kind of odd that after having passed through a snow-covered landscape to get a phone call from a friend in LA that I should check the reports on the fires in LA as certain highways may be blocked.
From ice to fire in just 24 hours.
Well, I’m less than an hour away from LA and am feeling kind of sad that the trip is almost over. At the same time, I am looking forward to seeing my friends in LA and returning to a more regular routine, preparing for my dissertation and blogging on the news of the idea and other ideas I might have.
My greatest regret about this trip is that I haven’t had enough time to visit with friends and family as I would like. And now, I’m so drained from the drive on so little sleep I don’t have as much to say as I had expected.
I sit in front of this screen waiting for the ideas to come.
I should comment on something I left out of a previous post. When I stopped for gas in Lawrence, Kansas on Saturday night, I noted that the it was taking forever to fill up my tank. The guy across from me commented that his pump was slow as well. Soon, we fell to talking.
Turns out this guy is a serviceman just back from Iraq. He commented on the difficulty of the endeavor, that the enemy hides in schools and hospitals and that he has had to shoot at terrorists who fire on US troops then plant themselves between children.
When the news media reports on the deaths of civilians in US attacks, I wonder how frequently they report on the cravenness of our adversaries. How very evil are our opponents in Iraq.
I will miss the open road when I return home tomorrow. And on this trip, I have not only regretted that I did not have as much time as I would have liked with family in friends, but did not have enough time to explore the natural beauty of this great nation, a regret I felt repeatedly today as I crossed the stunning landscape of southern Utah with massive red cliffs rising up from an oftentimes desolate landscape, sometimes sprinkled with snow or decorated with trees or other foliage.
Be safe from those wildfires.